


Cruelty Potential - Episode Prompto

by TimidMarshmallow



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Coffee Drinking, Mentions Gladio, Mentions Ignis, Pryna - Freeform, angst and fun for all ages!, bazookas and sniper rifles, guest star employee of the month - magitek trooper number 37, snowmobiling, what fourth wall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 00:29:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11429409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimidMarshmallow/pseuds/TimidMarshmallow
Summary: Prompto has an adventure. It's an emotional roller coaster, but he gets to shoot stuff and take selfies.





	Cruelty Potential - Episode Prompto

**Author's Note:**

> This is written in the same style as Cruelty Potential. If you like this, maybe check out that one too? ;P

Prompto trudged through the snowstorm, shivering. The camera focused in on how sad and cold he was. 

"Let it go, let it go... I wish this song would get out of my head. It's not even funny anymore. Aw man, my boogers are frozen." He tripped. Pulling himself up, he made it a couple of steps before falling again. 

Magitek airships descended from the sky as he lost consciousness. His eyelashes fluttered closed as snowflakes thundered against him. 

Flashback time! 

Oh no! Noct, stop! Wait, no no no!

Aw, baby Prompto! Oh no, he's sad too. Wait, come back guys! 

Wake up time!

Prompto was on the floor, his coat sleeve pulled up and his leather bracelet gone. "It's gone? Where am I?" His phone was gone, his gun was gone, and he was alone. He was a little disturbed. That meant someone had been rooting through his clothes. Walking around the cell, he found an audio diary and a newspaper clipping. Pocketing them, he moved towards the weird console by the door. 

He went to poke it when his barcode glowed green. "What? It didn't do that in the main game when I was in Zegnautus... Wait, that's after this dlc. I shouldn't keep breaking the fourth wall like this." 

Before he could ponder that oddity he sensed pure malice. He turned and saw the chancellor. Scrambling back a few steps, Prompto tried to summon his gun. "What gives?"

"Haha, I'm an asshole and I'm going to shove this gun at your chest. I'll do the same thing to Noctis later when I gloat about how I've kidnapped you." Ardyn strolled forwards as he taunted the blond. "Go talk to Dr. Besithia."

"Um, I don't want to." Prompto didn't know who that was, but he had a feeling he was a bad dude. Wait, he had just found the audio file and newspaper. Was that who he was referring to?

"You don't have a choice. I'm a master manipulator, and I have plans for you. So run along." He vanished as Prompto tried to aim at him. 

"At least I have my gun back. Now to get out of here." Prompto walked out into the hall. "An Ebony vending machine! Oh, this reminds me of Iggy and now I'm sad again. I'll just curl up here for a minute." 

He sat against the machine for a while. "I should probably get going." He noticed the photo spot icon. Posing for a silly photo despite being very emotional right now, he realized that he had been left with the camera. Thank goodness. He didn't want that creepy old man looking through all his pictures of him and his friends. 

Prompto followed the corridor. He gasped and ducked behind a crate as a magitek patrolled the hall. "I can't let them find me." He tackled the soldier and stole his weapon. 

He kept moving, mowing down enemies and hiding when the tutorial told him to. 

!!!!!!!!!

"BAZOOKA!?" 

Prompto snatched the giant gun. "Haha, I wanna use this on Ardyn."

Boom, bang, explosion, hallway cleared. "Only three shots? Better run back and grab another." Prompto tried to carry, like, five of them before realizing that he couldn't be sneaky that way. He reluctantly put the extra back. 

He walked through a door and saw a conveniently revealing window that displayed a bunch of magitek soldiers. Prompto cursed. "Wow, even my cursing is cute." He continued down the hall, picking up the audio files, newspaper clippings, and healing items. Eventually coming to a storage room of sorts, he grabbed the sniper rifle. "This one's nice too. Maybe I should use this one instead... But my bazooka... I'll just have to find another one."

He found a way outside that led to more of the facility. Prompto learned about the baby cloning and how 'some Lucian' had stolen him. "Aw man. I've been kidnapped more times than Daphne from Scooby Doo." He sat against the vending machine, sad again. 

He went to leave the room when he found the jump scare the developers couldn't resist adding. Shooting the attacking robot, he continued on. He fought through more magitek. "I never miss!" 

And then he missed, because the aiming in this game was the tiniest bit tricky. Especially since he was more worried about not getting shot himself. There would be no regrouping to heal, since he was alone. 

He opened the door with his wrist against the console. "Long creepy, dramatic hallway. Must be getting close to where I'm supposed to talk to this guy."

Test tubes filled with clones greeted him. "That's sick. I'm going to be sick." He looked at the reports on the floor, hoping a boring science document would calm his nausea. Since it was a termination report, it didn't help. He crept through the area and heard generic evil laugh number three coming from behind another convenient giant window. 

Ardyn began talking. "Hey bro, remember the baby that was taken twenty years ago?"

"The ones those Lucians absconded with?"

"Yeah, the Lucians. It was totally them, not me, even though I'm technically a Lucian but you don't know that. I also had access to this lab, can travel literally anywhere I want, and have probably gone back to Insomnia a few times to spy on that royal bloodline I hate. I may or may not have put that baby we're talking about in the city close enough to the capital that he'd 'accidentally' end up meeting the prince. Anyway, I kidnapped him again. Say hi, Prompto. I know you're hiding in the other room."

"Nope nope nope. Wait, why is my objective telling me to confront him!? I want to get out of here, not do what Ardyn wants!" Prompto had no choice. The game was determined keep making him sad even though he was super kind and deserved all the love in the world. 

He found the diamond weapon report and sat at the vending machine again. "If I have to go talk to him then he's going to wait until I'm done with this Ebony." He petulantly sat and drank the entire can, taking his sweet time. 

Procrastinating for as long as possible, he finally continued on. 

The deranged doctor turned, revealing his daemonification. "I'm going to prove how evil I am by calling you a failure even though I know nothing about what you've accomplished as a person. I'm also gonna creepily pet your face. Come here, little boy." Dr. Besithia grabbed his shoulder and went to touch his cheek. 

"Stranger danger! I need an adult! Wait, crap, I am an adult! I need an adultier adult! Ignis, help!" But Mama Iggy was on the train, comforting Noctis. 

Prompto screamed and looked away as he fired his gun. The doctor, who wasn't even human anymore, collapsed. Prompto dropped to his knees, gun clattering to the floor. 

"All according to plan. I'm gonna taunt you some more, m'kay?" Ardyn proceeded to do just that over a loudspeaker. 

"Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up shut up!" Gloved hands slammed against the floor. "I knew following the quest marker would lead to this sort of angst!" 

Red lights and a mechanical voice overwhelmed the distraught gunner. Aranea dropped down from the ceiling with a dead Iron Giant. Thank goodness he hadn't run into one of those. 

"Hi. I was just in Tenebrae, saving refugees with my red airship (not here anymore, can't give you a ride back to the chocobros) and my loyal men (not here, can't help us move through the base). I also chose now to appear because you can't see Ardyn right now, and you won't see him again until I leave you alone. Let's go destroy Immortalis. Again, I never mentioned knowing about this when I told you I wanted to leave the army. This sort of thing would have definitely come up in conversation as the main reason for me leaving."

Prompto stared at her silently. 

She walked over to the conveniently placed blueprints. Done examining the complicated paper with just a glance, she strolled over and yanked him up. "Get moving. I say I'll leave you, but I totes won't. I just need to sound badass." 

Prompto followed her quietly. 

Daemons and robots tried to capture him, but Aranea cleared a path. "Where are you going?"

"Gloogle said there's a photo spot over here. Give me a second. Now it's picture time!" Prompto posed with a potion and a random Kenny Crow statue. Who knew that the franchise even had their dumb statues out here?

Aranea shoved a map at his chest the exact same way Ardyn had shoved the gun at him earlier. "Go!"

"But-"

"I said go!" She dropkicked a daemon. Prompto climbed onto the vehicle and drove away. 

Halfway down the slope there was another photo spot, and he barely avoided being blasted by the attacking airships above. The snowmobile flew over the last jump at the bottom of the mountain, and Prompto fell off. He screamed as he bounced in the snow, and he rolled onto his back to look at the cloudy sky. He slowly dragged himself up. 

Righting the snowmobile, Prompto followed the map to a small cave next to a lake. He walked over to the water and found another photo spot. This one showed him fishing, and he remembered all the times he whined about how long Noct was taking. Now he was kind of glad he had picked up the basics of his best friend's hobby. 

When he saw his reflection in the icy mirror he realized that his hat pushed his bangs down into the same hairstyle he wore in high school. It made him look younger, and more vulnerable. 

He walked into the cave. There was a spot for a campfire, and it glowed blue, but the familiar runes of a haven were missing. Hopefully the daemons would stay away. He started a fire and sat down with a can of something and a utensil. Was this in the snowmobile? He didn't remember where he got it from, but he was glad to have food. He had been worried that he would starve before he reunited with everyone. 

"Mm... Almost as good as what Iggy used to make." 

He missed his cooking mama. He missed his best bro Noctis. He even missed Gladio's teasing. 

Prompto looked at his barcode and scratched at it with his gloved fingers. He looked at the fire, and grabbed a burning stick. 

The choices came up on screen, and it was probably embarrassing how fast the 'give up' option was chosen. 

Prompto dropped the stick. "Oh thank goodness. I was worried that you'd pick the other one. Glad you're not a sadist."

Aranea suddenly appeared again. "Don't tell me you thought that would work." She sat down next to the fire. 

"When did you get here? I didn't hear your snowmobile."

"Don't think too hard about that, because tomorrow morning there will be only one snowmobile and we'll have to share. Logically, I should have had one that I rode down here. It would've been parked next to yours. But I didn't bring one, because this supports the theory that I'm Ardyn in disguise. That teleporting, shapeshifting trickster sure is crafty, huh?"

Prompto stared at her again. "You know we're supposed to be talking about how you ran into my friends, right? You're not here to discuss fan theories." 

"Hey, can't let you have all the fourth wall breaking fun. So, you're gonna go back to them, right? They'd have a better shot at getting to the Crystal with you. Haha get it? Better shot, cuz you're a gunner? I'm so clever. I think I'll say something similar to Noctis on the train later. Hmm... I know, 'the gunman's a shot away' or something like that." Aranea watched as he wrestled with all the confusing emotions. He wanted to go back, but would they treat him different?

Aranea stood up. "Here's the part where I give you advice that we'll just call tough love, okay?" She kicked his shoulder and straddled him before grabbing his face. "You better hope I'm really Aranea or this would be pretty creepy for you." 

"And now I just remembered that you're like ten years older than me. This is highly inappropriate, even if you are telling me to live my life for myself. Thanks for the advice, please get off of me." Prompto lay there to think about what he should do. 

"I'm going to angrily storm off now, but I'm going after that new model tomorrow." Aranea disappeared to who knows where. 

He sat up. 

=========================

Barking? It sounded like Dave's dog. Could they really not record another dog? 

It was still cloudy, and Prompto ran out of the cave. "Where is Aranea? Oh, I guess she left. But the only snowmobile is still here..." He followed the dog's call. 

"Ooh, sidequests? Ah! Leave that baby garulet alone!" Prompto took a photo with the lost baby who was separated from his family. He sympathized with its position. Hey, he had also helped a separated baby in the anime. That dog... had it been foreshadowing this? The dog had reminded him of Pryna, and he remembered that he was supposed to be finding the source of the barking. 

Continuing his search, he found a magitek in the snow. He sat down in front of it and closed his eyes for a second. 

When he opened them again it was dark. The robot was gone. He heard footsteps in the snow. Prompto jumped up and turned to see Noctis approaching as he summoned his sword. "No, Ardyn, don't use his face! Leave me alone!" 

The blond stumbled back and raised a hand to reach out. He saw that his fingers looked like metal claws. "Oh, now you're putting a glamour on me too? You're such a jerk!" 

He ran as the fake Noctis chased him. When he couldn't run anymore he looked back to see that he was alone. He looked at his hands, and they were back to normal. 

He heard the barking again. Prompto whipped around to see Pryna. "Hmm. Fake Noctis is gone and now Pryna appears? If that's really Luna's dog then shouldn't she have tried to help me earlier? Don't tell me Ardyn knew about how I helped Tiny."

He followed the dog anyway. As he ran the sun rose in the sky. "When I sat down it was morning. Or was it? Did I really wake up just before dawn and I was stuck in a glamour? There's no way I slept in the snow, sitting like that all day until night."

Pryna led him to a group of felled magitek. One of them reached out towards him. Damn, he realized that had things happened differently then that could've been him. He shook his head to push the image and the thought out of his mind. 

He shakily raised the gun before shaking his head again. He set his shoulders, aimed, and after a single tear rolled down his cheek he fired. 

And there was his child self sitting in the snow, covering his ears. Upturned camping equipment lay around him. Was this supposed to symbolize how scared he was of everyone just leaving him behind with a mess of memories and emotions? 

Adult Prompto put a hand on Baby Prompto's back. 

And suddenly he saw himself sitting on the steps of the capital, sylleblossom petals raining down. 

Luna? 

She had promised to watch over Noctis, so maybe she'd extend that love and protection to all his friends. 

He saw Pryna holding her letter. He opened it to read it, and he looked at the photos of him and his friends. 

He knew that he had to get back to them. They were his family, and he wanted to be with them. Goal in mind, love remembered, and spirits renewed, he stood up and retrieved his camera from the steps. He ran up to the citadel, feeling like he was running back to Noctis and his Lucian life before all of the horrible things began. 

He opened his eyes and stood up. 

-o-

Somehow he found Aranea. 

"Wait. You were going to take the only snowmobile and just leave me here?" Prompto was a little hurt. 

"I might have come back." Aranea stopped messing with the snowmobile. 

"Might have?" 

"Hey, if I didn't then Ardyn would definitely have come back for you. You'd be good to use as live bait for your friend. Of course, you have another task to attend to first before you help with that particular job. Let's go. Slow me down and you'll get left behind."

"Why ya gotta be so ruuude? Don't you know I'm human toooo?" Prompto climbed onto the snowmobile. "You're letting me drive?" 

"Yeah. Don't crash." Aranea held onto the handles. "Don't worry about running out of gas. This thing is probably powered by a magitek core or something." 

Prompto looked at the sky before he drove off. Hmm, it's sunny and bright now that I have unclouded my emotions. Pretty clever symbolism there. 

It was also a nice touch to show that he picked himself up the various times he had been on the ground. That was probably one of his greatest strengths, his determination and will. When he had been yanked up had been his lowest point on this whole soul searching journey. 

They arrived at the base. "I'm going to sneak up on that robot. Oh wait, there's another picture spot here." He backed the snowmobile up until the marker appeared. "And by the camp. Let's go back. Ah, and we need to fight the behemoth for another photo."

"You are really dedicated to this photography thing." Aranea reluctantly followed and took selfies with him. Aw man, if this was Ardyn then Prompto would have villain selfies. Nothing disturbing about that, right...?

Prompto bazooka'd the behemoth to death from the safety of the conveniently placed gun shack. 

Pictures taken, they returned to the base. 

Prompto crept through the brush, but Aranea just charged. Somehow they only noticed when Prompto made noise. The pair fought their way through robots. They rested at the Ebony vending machine when they were done. 

"I thought only the glasses guy liked this stuff." Aranea took a sip of coffee. 

"He just likes it the best, so we all kind of leave his stash alone." Prompto wished he could take some cans with him, but his pockets were full of potions he had scavenged. They were more important. 

Entering the building, Prompto found more papers and audio files. "They killed Shiva?" 

"Let's get going, I kind of have to get over to your friends." Hearing about Shiva reminded Maybe Ardyn that he had a train to catch. 

They fought through another room of magitek and took a photo of a link strike. The corridor had more vending machines and records to collect. Ooh, another phot spot! 

They entered the next room to find a giant robot gorilla. It was creepy, and Prompto started firing as it attacked. He sniped its hands (paws?) as it hung from the ceiling and then used crackshot when it landed, vulnerable. Wait, shouldn't this move be called Piercer? Whatever. 

Gorillabot was destroyed for two seconds when the mechanical voice announced that Immortalis was ready. They ran outside to the conveniently placed snowmobile with a conveniently mounted gun. 

Dr. Besithia kept up his generic mad scientist chatter as the giant worm hand thing ravaged the countryside. 

"It's enormous!" Prompto shot at the glowing cores that spun around. 

"Phrasing!" Aranea snickered as she steered. 

A good chunk of Niflheim was destroyed as the death worm chased them. When it finally fell Aranea stopped the snowmobile. "You alright?" 

"Yeah. This is what I wanted. I mean, not really, I want to go to my family. But I got rid of a threat to them and the world, so I guess this victory can be celebrated." He spun around and pointed finger guns at Aranea. "Couldn't have done it without you, guuurrl!"

"You're so adorkable. I'm glad I kidnapped you." 

"What?"

"What?" 'Aranea' shrugged. 

"I better get back to Noct and the guys. I'm just going to take the only snowmobile, okay?" Prompto climbed aboard, promising to tell his friends the truth. "Aranea! Thanks."

He zoomed off. 

Ardyn stepped into frame as soon as the camera moved away from Aranea. "I stole his chocobo song and now I'm going to steal his victory fanfare humming. I'm such an asshole." 

-o-

Black screen, credits, and the sounds of the restraints and the cell door closing. Sad music began to play. 

Prompto woke up and saw his boots. His regular ones, not the snow boots. He looked up to see the cell door. Still slightly dazed, he snapped to attention upon noticing that his wrists were tied to a device. His leather bracelet was back too. He struggled before realizing that he was trapped, and moving was aggravating his sore... everything. How long had he been out? 

He hung there. 

Wait. He was back in his regular clothes, and his snow outfit was nowhere in the room. Did his best friend's distant relative change his clothes? 

And where did all these bruises come from? It could be argued that some of the ones on his arms came from his tumble off of the snowmobile. But where did the cut on his temple and across his nose come from? Why was his cheek bruised? It wasn't there when he left Aranea. 

The way the cuffs were holding his wrists didn't match up with the location and shape of the bruises circling his forearms. 

Damn, what had happened? Prompto tried to remember while he waited for Noct. He could hear Ardyn taunting his friend over the loudspeaker. "Don't listen to him! He's lying. Oh man, hurry up guys."

He had been slipping into a half sleep when he heard them running. He looked up as Noctis' light dawned on him. His best friend's face flooded his view as they opened the restraints. 

They all inquired about his health, and he confirmed that he was okay. "Can I have a potion, please? And a hug?"

-o-

Prompto sat on the dormitorium bed. Noctis awkwardly approached. "Hey. I made the other two stand in the hall so I could talk to you." He sat down on the bed too. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you. I fell for the deception too. I can't believe I thought you hated me." Prompto shook his head. "Fear and confusion can really mess with your head. I had some fun snowmobiling though. And I took photos. Wanna see?"

They giggled over his silly photo spot pictures and battle selfies. "I'm surprised Aranea didn't slap you for playing with the camera instead of fighting."

"I kicked ass, Noct. Even though I tripped up a lot and she had to heal me a couple times." Prompto smiled. "It's a good thing we all kept training while we traveled together."

Noctis grew serious. 

"Hey, when we get the Crystal back I'm going to unite our kingdoms. You're my best friend and I don't want you to feel sad or different anymore. Even though I don't care that you're from Niflheim. You with me?" 

"Uh huh. Ever at your side." Prompto smiled. 

The camera faded out. 

-o-

Ignis was trapped under magitek soldiers. 

Evil trash uncle stood over him and said something. Ignis grimaced and said something back. 

"When we were in the caravan before Titan, I didn't like your spinach puffs."

"You asshole! That's my favorite recipeh!"

-o-

Prompto dodged another swipe from the dragoon. "I'm glad I'm so agile, this fight is crazy!"

Aranea kicked him in the chest and he rolled over in the snow, clutching his coat front as he caught his breath. "Now you die! Nobody kicks my favorite video game character like this!"

Prompto defeated her faster than Gladio had beaten Cor. "In your face! Selfie time, b****!"

-o-

Prompto rammed into yet another tree after soaring over the ramp-like rock. "Ouch. Well, there goes all hope of me beating my time score. Time to start over." Prompto drove the vehicle off of the cliff's edge, forcing the game to reload the race. 

When he finally beat the first trial after trying for two hours (no exaggeration), Prompto finished the second one almost instantly. "Aw man, I have to do it at night now? In a blizzard? Wait, who set up the starting and finish lines? And who scattered all these crystals? Aren't these the same crystals from the Carbuncle demo? Am I dreaming about snowmobiling right now? That would explain why I haven't flown off after all the times I ran into a tree."

Prompto stood on the snowmobile cheering as Aranea clapped. He gave her a thumbs up. 

So adorkable.

**Author's Note:**

> I want an entire Prompto game. 
> 
> (But I'm scared they'll somehow mess it up like FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns. Prompto deserves better!)


End file.
